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Active

When talking about a person's style, this word means that the player enjoys playing agressive or tactical positions. Used in any other conext it generally deals with an agressive position or move.

Advantage

A player is said to have an advantage when their position is better then their opponent's. How does one know whether they have an advantage or not? It is usually based on the four principles: force, time, space, or pawn structure.

Algebraic Notation

A modern way to record chess moves of a game that is the most popular around the world. It is the only notation that is recognized by the CFC, perhaps with the exception of Figurine Algebraic (See Figurine Algebraic Notation). It denotes a value to each of the files (a number) and denotes a value to each of the rank (a letter), making it one of the easiest notations to follow.

Alpha-Beta Pruning - Not Used at This Site

A technique that is used by computer programmers to cut down on the number of possible moves that a computer has to evaluate before arriving at a good move.

Analysis

Calculating a series of moves and variations in a current position. You are not allowed to move pieces while analysing a position in tournament play.

Annotation / Annotate

Comments about a particular position in a chess game. Sometimes variations are displayed in an annotation.

Attack

To play an aggressive move, or series of moves in a particular area of the board. Attacks often include the threatening to take a piece or threatening checkmate so the opponent is forced to react.

Backward Pawn

A pawn which has "fallen behind" the other pawns and it thus left without the protection of other pawns. Pawns are generally much stronger when they are side by side, rather than background or fragmented in other ways.

Bad Bishop

A bishop which runs along the same diagonals as ones which his own pawns are on and thus block it in and keep it from reaching its full potential.

Battery

Placing a number of pieces on an open diagonal, file or rank. Pieces are generally much stronger when placed in a battery. Queen and rooks go well on files, bishops and queens on diagonals.

Bishop Pair

Refers to two bishops of one colour playing against a single bishop and knight or two knights. Two bishops are often stronger than one alone because they can control diagonals of both colours. The two compliment each other.

Blockade

The act of placing a piece in front of an opponent's pawn to prevent it from moving, knights are usually ideal for this job.

Blunder

A horrible move giving up a lot of material or even the game. Don't make blunders, enough said.

Breakthrough

When a player is able to penetrate directly into the camp of his opponenent.

Building a House

The act of placing your bishop on g or b2, your knight on c or f3 and castling to that side. See also fianchetto

Calculation of Variations

Calculating strings of move without moving the pieces. Mikail Tal was famous for his ability to calculate variatons of moves with ease.

Capture / Capturing

The act of moving one of your pieces to a square occupied by one of your opponents pieces and removing it from the board, out of play. Once a piece is captured, it may never return to the game.

Castle

Sometimes the rook is referred to as a castle, but this refers to a special move in chess in which you move two pieces (the only move allowing you to do this) and get your king to the safety of the wings behind a row of pawns and get your rook to the center in one move. Player will nearly always castle during a game, often in the opening and without a player castling the game is usually quite irregular.

Center

The center is the geographic center of the board, the most important being squares e4, e5, d4 and d5. The e- and d-files are referred to as the center files. See also Extended Center.

Check

The act of attacking one's opponent's king. When check takes place, a player usually will call out "check" to his opponent so that he is aware of the threat. See the check section of the tutorial.

Checkmate

An attack on one's opponent's king from which it cannot escape using one of the three methods. When checkmate occurs, the game has ended and the person playing the checkmate has won. See the check section of this tutorial.

Classical

When referring to a player's style, it means that the player bases his play on a full pawn center. It also refers to an era where all players used this style and those that did not were considered irregular.

Clearance Sacrifice

The act of giving your opponent one of your pieces because it is blocking a square that would be advantageous for another piece to be placed there.

Closed

Refers to the type of position being played. A "closed game" is one in which the center is cluttered with pawns that are interlocked. Play usually focuses on the wings.

Connected Passed Pawns

Two or more pawns which are unobstructed by enemy pawns and thus have the threat of queening. These pawns rest on files beside one another and thus are more dangerous because they each provide support of the others.

Control

To dominate an area or aspect of the board. You can control the light diagonals, an open file, or sector of the board. You can even control a particular square.

Counter Attack

When a player who is being attacked counter thrusts with an attack of his own rather than defending.

Counter Play

When a player who has been defnding for several moves begins an attack of his own.

Cramped [Position]

A player is said to have a cramped position or is cramped when he is at a disadvantage in space and thus very little room to move his pieces around in.

Critical Position / Move

A very important move in the position which the game may be decided on. If played poorly the player will lose, if played well, they will win.

Decoy

A tactic in which a player tries to lure an opponent's piece to a square that is particularly vulnerable. These sequences can sometimes be forced.

Defense

A move or series of moves that are played to stop an opponent's attack.

Deflection

A tactic which forces an opponent piece off of a square where it had to be, either because it was defending a piece or square or because it was blocking a threat.

Develop / Development

The act of moving pieces from their original squares to places where they are more effective, usually in the center, and have more mobility.

Discovered Attack

An attack which occurs when a piece moves out of the way of another piece. This can be particularly effective if the piece that moves to discover the attack can attack something as well, thus revealing two threats in one turn.

Double Check

Similar to the discovered attack, only the piece which the attack is revealed upon is the king.

Double Attack

An attack against two pieces on the same turn.

Double Check

Occurs when the king is checked twice on the same turn. This can only occur by dicovery. It can be extremely effective because the only response to a double check is fleeing. This can sometimes lead to an unexpected mate.

Doubled Pawns

A characteristic of pawn structures that occurs when more than ne pawn of the same colour reside on the same file. Doubled pawns occur as a result of a capture.

Draw

A tied game in which neither side wins. See the Interesting Cases section of this tutorial.

Elo Rating

A system in which players all over the world are ranked according to their skill. It was devised by Arpad Elo (hence the name of the system) in 1970 and contiues to be in effect today.

En Passant

A most modern rule in the game of chess. It is a French phrase which literally means In Passing. The rule comes into effect when a pawn, on its first move goes up two squares and lands beside an enemy pawn. When this happens the enemy pawn is allowed to take the pawn as if it had only advanced one square. It was introduced because when a pawn landed on the fifth rank and an enemy pawn used the two square move, it could dodge the fight of the enemy pawn which was deemed unfair. This move is only allowed to be invoked the instant the pawn moves two squares, afterwardsit would be too hard to tell which pan had moved two squares or had moved one squre and then another, etc.

Endgame

The final of three phases of the game. Although it is a very definite phase of the game, it is very difficultto tell when you have left the middlegame and entered the endgame. The endgame is said to be when there are few pieces left on the board and usually after the queens are exchanged. This is the final phase in a chess game.

Equality

A situatioin in a chess game where neither side has an advantage, or when each players advantages compliment each other.

Exchange

The trading of pieces, where one piece captures another and then this piece is recaptured back. You are said to have won the exchange when the trading of pieces results in you winning more material, based on the points system (i.e. rook(5 points) for bishop(3 points) )

FIDE

Short for the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or, in English, the International Chess Federation. They govern over world champions, master, IMs, GMs, etc. See also IM; GM

File

The vertical columns of the chessboard which, in Algebraic Notation are each assigned a letter, beginning with a-file, b-file, etc.

Flank

The files that do not belong to the center: the a-, b- and c-files on the queenside and the f-, g- and h-files on the kingside.

Force

Usually defined as material. One is said to have an advantage in force when they have more material than their opponent. However, you can also be said to have an advantage in force if you have a number of pieces directed at a certain part of the board where hte enemy pieces are not. thus, you control this area of the board.

Forced

A forced move or series of moves are ones which must be played, either legally, or because if the opponent does not play them, his position will be destroyed.

Fork

A move in chess in which, on one move, a piece attacks two of its enemy's pieces at the same time.

Forward Pawn

A pawn that is at the very front of a pawn chain. t is the only pawn contained in hte chan that does not protect another pawn.

Gambit

A gambit occurs in the opening when a player voluntarily gives up material (usually a pawn) for a positional or developmental superiority over their opponent. They tend to be very risky and lead to very interesting games.

GM

Short for GrandMaster. See below.

Good Bishop

A bishop that is not on the same colour as its own pawns, thus it has great mobility and its pawns do not obstruct it.

Grande Combination

French for large combination: A combination which is carried out over several moves and is sometimes very subtle. They tend to feature many types of tactical themes.

GrandMaster

A title awarded by the FIDE for outstanding international play. A player must meet a number of standards and once this status is reached, it cannot be taken away, even if the player's rating drops.

Half-Open File

A file that contains only one colur of pawns because of trades or captures.

Hang / Haning

Pieces are said to be "hanging" when they are unprotected and vulnerable to attack. Also referred to as En Prise.

Hole

A square in a player's position which cannot be defended by a pawn and thus is vulnerable. A player must learn to find holes and take advantage of these squares.

Hypermodern(s)

A type of player that believed that placing a pawn in the center would make it vulnerable (the exact opposite of classical players). Hypermoderms tend to try to control the center indirectly from the flanks rather then directly. Richard Reti and Aaron Nimzovich are examples or hypermodern players.

IM

Short form for International Master.

Initiative

You possess the initiative when you are able to make threats to which your opponent must react. It was said by Steinitz that the person who possesses this initiative must willingly go over to the attack.

Insufficient Material

When neither player has enough pieces to mate their opponent. A draw is declared.

Interpose / Interposition

The act of placing a piece in between an enemy attacking piece andthe actual attacked piece.

Intuition

The ability to find the correct move or strategy to play or in a certain position based on a "feeling" or hunch rather than actually calcualting a sequence of moves.

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Kingside

One half of the board which belongs to the e-, f-, g-, and h-files. It is called the kingside because it is the half of the board which the king is on. See also queenside.

Luft [looft]

A german word for air. When referring to chess, luft means to move a pawn that is in front of a catled king so that a back rank mate is prevented. You literally give the king room to breathe.

Major Pieces

The queen and rooks are referred to as the Major or Heavy Pieces because they are more powerful than the Minor Pieces. See also Minor Pieces (Below).

Master

A title given to players who achieve a rating of 2200 or more. If the player's rating drops below 2200, the title is revoked.

Mate

A slang term for checkmate. See also checkmate.

Middlegame

The second or three phases of a chess game. This is the most complicated phase of the game and often involves a lot of tactics and strategy to play well.

Minor Pieces

The bishops and knights are referred to as the Minor Pieces because they are not as powerful a piece as the queen and rooks or Major Pieces.

Mobility

Refers to how much freedom of movement the pieces have. An advantage in space means that the player's pieces have greater mobility than their opponent's.

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Occupy

A queen or rook that controls a rank or file is said to occupy that file while a bishop is said to occupy a diagonal. A piece is also said to occupy the square that it sits on.

Open File

A verical column of a chessboard which does not contain any pawns of either colour. Open files are ideal for rooks to be placed on.

Opening

The first of three phases of a chess game. It is usually the first 10 to 15 moves of a chess game in which you get your pieces of their starting places and the players may have their first confrontation. See the Opening section of this tutorial.

Opening Repertoire

A set of openings that a player prepares in advance to get to a middlegame that he feels comfortable playing.

Openings

A specific sequence of moves which have been catalogued over time. Players often play a specific opening because players have analyzed them thoroughly and believe it is the best way to achieve the initiative. There are over 1000 openings and many, many more variations. Mst are named after the player, region or type of moves that are played. Openings like the Alekhine Defense, King's Gambit and Sicilian Defense are a few examples.

Open Position

Refers to a position when the center is not blocked by pawn. A lead in development is very important and vital to win these types of positions.

Opposite-Coloured Bishop

When players have only one bishop each and they are on different-coloured squares.

Outside Passed Pawn

A passed pawn which is a far distance from all of he other pawns left on the board. Outside passed pawns are not located in the center.

Overextension

When space is gained too fast and may created permanent weaknesses in a players position. Overextension usually occurs wih the pawns begin rushed forward and thus created weak squares left behind. The actual rushed pieces can also become vulnerable. Players can also have an extended center.

Overworked Piece

A piece which is required to do too much. i.e. Defend too many pieces or points in a camp or blockade. These pieces are very weak to attack because the moving of these pieces leads to a number of weaknesses in the enemy camp.

Passed Pawn

A pawn which does not have any pawns that will be able to stop it from reaching it's last rank, making it a promotion threat. These are so valuable because officers of the enemy camp must be assigned to stop a wee little pawn, making it almost out of play so you can turn your attention to the enemy king, or even force the pawn to queen.

Passive

A player or game where a player did not play very aggressively and defended often.

Pawn Chain

A pawn chain is any group of pawns which touch each other on the same colour squares on a diagonal. It is said to be a chain because each pawn protects another pawn and thus are quite strong, except for the base pawn which is the only that is not protected.

Pawn Duo

Two pawns that are of the same colour that are side by side and touching each other.

Pawn Structure / Skeleton

Any arrangement of pawns for one colour. When analysing the pawn structure or skeleton you look at peculiarities in the pawns such as backward pawns, weak squares not protected by pawns and doubled or tripled pawns. All of these things may be weaknesses you can exploit.

Perpetual Check

Occurs when one colour can put the other's king into check forever. The game is declared a draw by perpetual check.

Perpetual Pursuit

Occurs when one colour can attack one of the other's pieces forever so that if the player would not like to lose material, it must continue to move. The game is declared a draw by perpetual pursuit.

Petite Combination

A combination which involves only a few moves and often only one tactical theme.

Pin

A pin occurs when a player places a piece on a square that would be attacking an enemy piece, but there is a piece of lesser value in between the two. Should this piece move, the greater value piece will be captured, rendering the pinned piece inoperable. The most powerful type of pin is one against the king, called an absolute pin because the piece is not allowed to move. Period. All other pins are called relative pins because the piece can move, but at the cost of exposing the piece behind it. The pin is by far the most common tactical theme.

Plan

A short or long term goal which a player bases his moves on. The goal may be to attack a weak spot in the camp or to checkmate the opponent. A formation of a solid plan is vital in a game of chess. This is our advatage over computers: they can't form a plan.

Point Count

A system devised to help players tell whether to exchange pieces or not. Pieces are assigned numerical value in accordance to valuable the piece is. The system is as follows:

• King - infinite (you can't exchange your king).
• Queen - 9 points
• Rook - 5 points
• Bishop - 3 points
• Knight - 3 points
• Pawn - 1 point

Promotion

The act of promoting a pawn which has reached it's last rank to bishop, knght, rook or queen of the same colour. Promotion to anything other than a queen is known as underpromotion.

Protected Passed Pawn

A passed pawn which is supported by another pawn. These are double the threat because the officers which guard them cannot capture them without loss of material.

Queenside

The half of the board which takes up the a-, b-, c-, and d-files. It is said to be the queenside because this half of the board is where the queen resides.

Quiet Move

A move that is not a check, threat or capture is said to be quiet. A number of quiet moves is said to be passive.

Rank

The horizontal rows of a chess board. There are 8 ranks on a chess board. Each are given a number (1-8) in algebraic notation.

Rating

A number gven by an organization which indicates the strength of a player. The higher this number, the stronger the player is. It was designed so that people can easily find a suitable match.

Resign

To give up the game because you have a hopeless position. You can either tip your king over as a symbol of it being checkmated soon and it's helplessness or simply say, "I resign". When you first begin playing, do not resign. Play every game to it's fullest to learn how your opponent beat you.

Romantic

When referring to the era, it was the time when all players attacked and sacrificed. If a sacrifice was offered, it was considered cowardly not to take it. When referring to a player, it is one which enjoys attacking and sacrificing. They are said to be a romantic.

Royal Fork

A fork against king and queen (not a good thing to have played on you).

Sacrifice

The act of giving up material for some sort of compensation. Perhaps positional, or even to checkmate the king. Sometimes a sacrifice is only temporary because if the material is accepted, it will be recovered shortly after.

Simplify

The act of trading pieces to "calm" a position down or make make things easier to understand. They can also be used to decrease an opponent's attacking potential.

Skewer

A tactical maneuvre in which you attack a piece so that it is forced to move so that you can capture a piece that was laying in behind. It is quite appropriately named.

Smothered [Check]Mate

Refers to when an enemy king has no legal moves because it's own piece surround i and then a knight gives check, also giving checkmate as a consequence. The king is literally smothered by it's own pieces.

Space

The territory which is controlled by a player. The more space a player controls, the less their opponent controls, hinders the opponent's movement.

Stalemate

A stalemate occurs when one player has no legal moves and it is their turn to move and his king is not in check. The game is declared a draw.

Strategy

The reasoning behind a move, series of moves, a plan, or even an idea. These are the moves that you make when there are no tactics to play in the position.

Study

A make-believe position, usually created by GMs, that highlight tactical themes.

Style

Refers to the type of player one is, characteristic of the moves they play. Attackers will be aggressive while classical players feel comfortable with a large center, some enjoy closed positions, etc.

Tactic(s)

A move or series of moves that take advantage of short-term opportunites in a position. A tactical position is one which has a number of tactics and traps involved.

Tempo

One move is considered a unit of time, tempi is plural. You are said to lose a tempo when you move a piece twice when you could have only moved it once. Tempi are even more vital in the opening.

Theory

Well-known positions that are documented in books.

3-Time Repetition of Position

This is one of the many types of draws. It occurs when the same position on the board (same pieces on the board, same locations, etc.) occurs three times. They do not have to be consecutively and this is why moves in tournaments are catalogued, so you can prove the draw.

Time Control

A set number of moves that must be played in a certain amount of time to prevent players from using too much time. If time controls were not in affect, games might take days and weeks. If a player uses all their time and have not completed the required moves, they must forfeit the match, losing the game, no matter whether he is winning or losing!

Time Pressure

When one player only has a small amount of time left to play several moves. This is usually where blunders occur.

Tranposition

An opening has a set series of moves, but that is not the only sequence to reach that position. If you reach a set opening variation, but did not follow the actual line, you are said to have transposed into the opening.

Trap

The act of luring your opponent into a tactic, mistake, or blunder.

Underpromotion

The act of promoting your pawn, when it gets to the 8th rank, to anything other and a Queen.

Variation

One line of analysis of a position. You have to calcualte these variations in your head and are not allowed to move the pieces.

Weak Square

A square in your or your opponent's position which cannot be defended by a pawn and thus makes it a perfect outpost for a piece. Also referred to as a hole.

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Zugzwang

A german word which means compulsion to move which refers to a position where a player would prefer to pass their move because every move they make will lead to a worse position, but by the laws of chess they must move.

Zwischenzug

A german word meaning in between move which refers to a move in which you play a surprising move during a sequence of exchanges which alters the outcome of the exchange. These can appear very subtle and are often quite complicated.

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